Jerry Lyons, 199th Light Infantry Brigade
"I came up with a plan. At some point, early in my tour, I must have made
a conscious decision to try to control as much of my destiny as possible.
That boiled down to the following: stay alert, do things right, have faith
and don't dwell on the bad stuff." More...

Jim
Schueckler
"Soon we were heading towards the mountains with a Huey full of mail,
food, Christmas cargo, and two American young women. For the soldiers
who had been living off Vietnamese food and canned Army rations at lonely,
isolated outposts, these touches of home would be a welcome surprise."
More...

Tom
Fowler
"Fortunately, the firefight, such as it was, did not last long and nobody
inside our company area was hurt. However, this experience gave me a firmunderstanding
of why you are required to disassemble and reassemble a rifle blindfolded
in basic training." More...

R.
Dalton Buster
"Later we would also find out the V.C (Viet Cong) had kidnapped her grandfather.
They wanted to know if they were real or dummy mines — if it wasn't sandbags,
putting in mines or stringin' wire, IT was burying empty metal ammo boxes
(dummie mines)." More...

Dennis
Belcastro, 669th Transportation Co.
"There were six gun trucks spaced throughout the convoy and mine was right
out front when we rounded a bend in the road and entered the kill zone.
Now, what you are about see is a simulation based on the actual event.
However, I caution that there is no way the intensity and horror of this
ambush can be effectively portrayed here today." More...

Michael
J. Horton, 14th Engineer Battalion (Combat)
"The wind whipped my pantlegs as I stood with the others on the tarmac
at Travis Air Force Base, where we had been bussed to catch our plane
to Vietnam. There were about sixty-five of us, all army enlisted men,
with several non-comissioned officers who were to escort us safely to
Southeast Asia — or at least to see that we didn't go AWOL." More...

Bob
Hersey, 11th Armored Cavalry Regiment
"My Army career began with a promise ... A written "Guarantee" that I
would become a US Army Bread Baker. I attended the Quartermaster School's
bread baking course at Ft. Lee, Virginia all right but that was the first
and last time that I would bake bread in the Army." More...

Marshall
Darling, First Air Cav.
"My adrenaline level must have abruptly dropped at that moment because
suddenly I began to shake and a wave of hysterical tears racked my body
as I lay curled up in that smoky, earthy, damp smelling crater." More...

Sgt.
Barry Prowell
"George has been in country as long as I have and used to be a member
of my squad...We make eye contact and I can see the dread in George's
eyes. Silent words flash between us. It is somewhat frightening, we both
know today is different." More...

Mike
Braun
"Westy is coming" was the word passed out to the company living for three
weeks in sandbagged pits around the perimeter. We slept by day and fanned
out by night to set up ambushes along the many canals feeding into the
river. More...

Robert
Scott
"I discovered a way to make extra money ... I take pictures of combat
when I’m able (like now), and sell or trade them with the Remington Raiders
at Da Nang. They in turn send them home in letters to prove that they
are really in a war." More...

Cpl.
Stephen E. Austin, 1/27 Marines, Co. C, 3rd Platoon
"On my birthday things didn't go too good. One of my best friends who
I met in Hawaii was shot twice in the stomach and he died the following
afternoon. His name was Art Sinksen. I am going to write his parents a
letter as soon as I go in to Battalion area." More...

Peter
F. Fegatelli, Company D (Ranger), 151st Infantry
"Specialist Fegatelli, disregarding his own safety, came to his knees
in order to place more effective machine gun fire on the advancing enemy.
His accurate fire and courage inspired his comrades to increase their
volume of suppressive fire." More...

Richard
E. Meadows, 1st Infantry Division
"At one point, I was watching the leaves
at my feet dancing. It wasn't until a few seconds later that I realized
that I was exchanging gunfire with a VC machine gunner. I was praying
that my accuracy was better than his." More...

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